Question

Read this stanza from Allen Ginsberg’s "A Supermarket in California."

Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?

In this stanza, the speaker wishes
A he owned a blue vehicle like his neighbors.
B he was back in his quiet home away from the market.
C Whitman was still alive to keep him company.
D America could be like it was when Whitman was alive.

Answer 1

In Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California", the speaker wishes that America could return to its Whitmanesque past—a time of love and connection that seems lost in the modern age.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the stanza from Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California", the speaker expresses a longing for a bygone era of America. Specifically, the answer to the student's question about what the speaker wishes for is D: America could be like it was when Walt Whitman was alive. The speaker feels a sense of nostalgia and yearning for the "lost America of love" and reflects on the change over time by imagining a walk with Whitman, showing him the current state of the nation in a supermarket setting. This suggests a critique of present-day America and a wish to return to an idealized past that Whitman represents in the speaker's mind.

Answer 2

NOT A or B, because it never mentions him having a desire to own a car and he does have a "... silent cottage." Its not C, either, because Whitman ( in his mind ) is with him the whole time. So the answer is D, because he would like to know his time before his own.